


One Last Chance

by alafaye



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Draco Malfoy, Community: hd_erised, M/M, Post-Hogwarts, Private Investigator Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-08-29 18:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8499946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alafaye/pseuds/alafaye
Summary: Draco's given one last chance to save his job as an Auror.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nerakrose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerakrose/gifts).



> Thanks to my beta, M, especially for their patience.

Draco looked up at the familiar sign of Astoria's pub, The Broken Horn. It had been a bookstore before the war and had remained closed after an attack. Draco had gotten it cheap when no one would buy it in the clean up and offered it as part of the wedding negotiations. He'd thought it would be a nice townhouse, like several other buildings in the neighborhood, but when the wedding hadn't happened, he'd offered it as compensation as part of his family traditions. Astoria had transformed the ground floor into a bar and the two other floors into flats. She occupied one and rented out the rest. She made enough that she wasn't dependent on her family and wouldn't be forced into any marriages.

Draco remained friends with her as the wedding hadn't happened because of anything they had done. Draco's mother and Astoria's father hadn't agreed on enough for them to be happy with the marriage. Astoria and Draco counted themselves lucky; Astoria could remain on her own for as long as she wanted and Draco was able to look forward to a future where he didn't have to marry a gender he didn't prefer. 

He opened the door and went to the back of the room, paying no attention to the rest of the bar. This was a neutral ground -- Astoria welcomed all kinds so long as no one caused any problems. Information could be exchanged here with no trouble or it could be a simple place to have dinner in peace, without worrying about enemies or being arrested. Draco, like a few other Aurors, honored that since they could also find themselves in need of such spaces. 

He'd come here now, hoping to run into Harry Potter. Harry had gotten fed up with the Aurors far sooner than Draco and left to become a private investigator. Something told Draco that Harry might have information he needed. He slipped onto his usual stool, and took out his notebook. It was coded and spelled against anyone peeking at it, but he wanted to have his thoughts clear if Harry did show up as he usually did at lunch.

"Bad day on the job?" Astoria asked as she put down a pint of his favourite.

He grimly smiled. "Either I figure this out or I'm being moved -- permanently -- to the archives."

She narrowed her eyes. "They're still blaming you for that cock up?"

He shrugged and took a drink of his beer. "I'll always be at fault. It doesn't matter that I was cleared of all charges even though I professed my innocence under Veratiserum."

"A former Death Eater will always be guilty to the Aurors," Harry added, slipping next to Draco.

Astoria cast a pinching hex at him. 

Draco sighed. "You're not funny."

Harry chuckled, but Draco nudged his notebook over to him. "I'm on my last chance."

"Last? I thought they hadn't given you any since they fucked you over," Harry asked. He cast the revealing spell on the notebook. Having worked for the Aurors before, he knew both the concealment charm and counter. He skimmed it.

"It was either this or bow out gracefully to the archives," Draco told him. He ordered some of the special and Astoria took the order back to the kitchen. Over her shoulder, she cast another pinching hex at Harry. Harry rubbed his arm where it hit, but it was an absent-minded gesture. Draco raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to remind me that I could instead join you in some noir-esque partnership as private investigators?"

Harry smirked. "I'd ask again, but last time I did was just before you kicked me out of bed. I got the impression I best not ask again."

"I recall I kicked you out because your offer included something along the lines of bending me over desks a lot more being part of the perks," Draco said.

Harry shrugged. "What can I say? I do like the way you look bent over a desk and I imagine we might have a lot of time for me to get a good view of it."

Draco sighed and propped his head on his head. "You are shameless."

"Guilty." Harry winked. He pointed to the notebook where Draco had questioned why someone would break into anyone's house just to steal a tea cup. "What did the cup look like?"

Draco frowned. "There wasn't a photo of it."

Harry tapped his finger on the bar top. "I had someone come to me because the Aurors turned him away when he reported a stolen tea pot."

Draco frowned, but it was his usual frustration. The Aurors would have turned someone away for reporting a tea pot, but if a tea cup had been taken from someone prominent -- a politician in this case -- of course the Aurors would do what they could to find it. "You think the cup and tea pot are related somehow?" he asked finally.

Harry took out his own notebook from his robe pocket. "The interesting thing is that another tea cup has also been stolen as well as a serving tray."

Draco blinked. "So a set?"

"Likely." Harry looked at Draco's notebook again and copied out some details into his own. He offered his notes to Draco so he could do the same.

"I'll see if I can find out more about where the cup came from," Draco told him.

"And I'll see if anyone has heard about them being fenced," Harry said. He put away his notebook. "Now that business is over...what're you doing tonight?"

Draco rolled his eyes and cast his own pinching hex. Harry's laugh ruined the effect, though.

~~~

Draco knocked on the office door of Mrs. Ryans, the one who was now missing a tea cup. Her secretary watched Draco warily, clearly unsure about the investigation now. Draco himself was feeling uneasy, but for different reasons. He suspected that Mrs. Ryans may not like that her case had been handed to him.

"Enter," she called after a moment.

Draco smiled pleasantly as he opened the door. "Hello. I'm here about your missing tea cup."

Her face lit up. "You found it?"

Draco shook his head sadly. "Not yet, but I have a lead or two."

She huffed and looked him up and down. "I should have known that they would hand this off to some lackey in the department and that it would take much longer than it should."

He bit back the words he wanted to snap and instead pointed to a chair in front of her desk. She nodded stiffly and covered her work. She primly folded her hands over the desk and waited. Draco noted that she was younger than he expected and that nothing in this office matched with what he thought of as someone who would go to the Aurors just to find a singular missing cup. 

He took out his notebook. "I wondered if you could tell me about the tea cup. Is it part of a set?"

She nodded. "Yes. It was being sold in pieces at an auction."

"You didn't want the others?"

She sighed angrily. "I wanted the whole set, but it was only being sold in pieces."

"And the name of the auction house?"

She looked away, almost snobbishly. "It was an estate sale, but I believe the Gifford Auction House sponsored it."

Given her attitude, he suspected the estate was a Death Eater who had been convicted shortly after the war. He noted the auction house name. "Do you remember the family name?"

"I'm unsure of how this relates to the investigation," she countered.

Draco squared his shoulders. "It is possible a relative stole the cup because he or she feels that it belongs to them."

She tilted her head, eyes narrowed. "Is that what you would do?"

He bit his tongue, holding his temper. "I'd respect that it had been sold to someone else. After all, I did lose a great number of my family heirlooms after the war."

She sighed. "The estate was from a relative of Evan Rosier."

"Thank you. I'll see if I can find out what happened to the rest of the set and go from there."

She said nothing else until he was at the door. "I did nothing wrong, buying that cup."

"It was all legal," he agreed. He turned to face her. "Though I wonder how you would feel if you found out that items that brought no one any harm and which had been in your family for generations -- how would you feel to know that they were sold to pay for crimes you didn't commit."

"Your family committed plenty of crimes," she hissed.

"But I did not," he pointed out. "Or rather, I admit that I did, but not enough to warrant the sale of heirlooms that belonged to the wizards and witches before me who travelled here from France many generations ago. Why should I and my future children suffer because my parents made bad choices?"

She looked away. "Get out."

Happily, he did.

~~~

Harry looked up from his notebook when Draco knocked on the door to his office. It was in a building with a dentist, a tea shop, and a second hand shop. It was underground which Draco had always thought far too cliché, but Harry seemed at home there. It did, as Harry always promised, have plenty of room for a second desk, even privacy for another investigator. It was cosier than the Auror department, with the fireplace and bookcases, but it still lacked some sense of professionalism.

Until today, it hadn't appealed to Draco in any way.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

Draco flopped into a leather wingback by the fireplace. "The woman whose tea cup has gone missing seems to feel I should be destitute for the crimes my family committed during the war. I'm used to the attitudes, but coming from someone who is part of my case? And she got the tea cup from an estate sale post war."

"I might have some scotch around here if you need to unwind a little," Harry offered. "Or tea?"

Draco sighed. "Tea. Please. I'd have some scotch, but I'm still on the clock technically."

Harry raised an amused eyebrow. "So you're here instead of doing some investigating because?" The kettle on a side table started boiling and a few cups started to assemble themselves.

Draco found himself caught by the dance. "I was going to find out if you had found anything out."

Harry hummed. "Did you get any other information?"

Draco took the cup when it floated over to him. "She said the set couldn't be sold as a whole. She wanted all of it, but that the auctioneers wouldn't let it be sold as a set. I know most sets are charmed to serve guests, but what if it was something else?"

Harry shifted some papers around. "That lines up with what I found out. My client gave me the name of the auction house he bought the tea pot from. It was part of a set. Luckily, the auction house gave me a photo of the set." He offered it to Draco.

Draco looked at the photo, frowning. "This looks familiar."

"Familiar?" Harry paused in taking a drink of his tea. "How?"

Draco sat up, trying to remember... "It was the Dark Lord. There were always rumors where he got it from or why he used it. It was enchanted to serve the tea and charmed to warn any drinkers about poisons."

"So we might be looking for someone who wants to complete the set or some mad Voldemort supporter," Harry groaned.

Draco sipped his tea. "I hate these kinds of cases."

Harry gave him a look, but said nothing.

~~~

Draco ignored the look from his superior, Williams, as he finished putting together what he had. A few photos, notes, some interconnected points. He had a few things from Harry, too, but he was keeping them hidden for now.

Williams narrowed his eyes. "Looks like a whole mess of nothing. Are you sure you'll figure this out?"

Draco sat back in his chair. "I know; it's the archives for me if I don't find the cup."

"Soon," Williams told him. Draco looked up sharply. Williams shrugged, uncaring. "Mrs. Ryans seems to feel that you aren't the right Auror for the case. If you don't hurry it up, you'll find yourself assisting someone else with the background for this case."

Draco fumed silently when Williams left, having pronounced Draco's fate. 

A memo flew in after Williams and landed at Draco's desk.

It read, _Got them._

~~~

Mrs. Ryans beamed when Draco delivered the cup. "Finally." She looked up through her eyelashes demurely. "What about the rest of the set?"

"Returned to their rightful owners," Draco told her smugly. Not that he cared much; each of the owners had all been the same as her. Wanting to own some piece of a Death Eater, feeling some part of the victory.

She sighed. "Ah, well. Maybe in the future. Thank you, Auror." She waved her hand dismissively.

Draco rolled his eyes as he walked out. He smirked at the secretary who glared at him and then he went to Williams' office. He put down his badge and resignation. "I'm done."

Williams shrugged. "Good. Get out of here."

Draco shook his head and left.

~~~

Astoria raised her eyebrows when the door opened. "Barely noon, Draco. What on earth has happened now?"

He grinned. "I quit. Resigned. Retired."

She smiled. "Good! They never treated you right."

Harry sat down next to Draco. "He'll be working with me now. Feel free to hex me if I don't treat him right."

She looked between them, distrustfully. Draco shrugged. "I need to do something and I'm already trained for the job."

Harry grinned. "Lucky me."

She hexed him out of habit. "You better treat him right. That pinching hex has nothing on how creative I can be."

Draco rolled his eyes. "We'll both have the special and two beers. We are trying to celebrate here."

She huffed. "See if I look out for you again." She set two beers on the bar and left to put their order in.

Harry raised his bottle. "To a successful partnership?"

Draco picked up his bottle, but held it back from tapping it against Harry's. "Her hexes have nothing on mine. We have a partnership, Harry. Understood?"

Harry nodded. "Understood." Their bottles tapped together and Harry took a drink from his. "Though I have to ask if you intend for us to take turns to make this an equal partnership. I wouldn't mind a nice fuck over my desk if you're providing it."

"I might give you more than a good fucking over your desk if you don't behave."

Harry winked cheekily.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! You can show your appreciation for the author in a comment here or on [Livejournal](http://hd-erised.livejournal.com/73864.html) . ♥
> 
> This story is part of an on-going anonymous fest hosted at hd_erised @ livejournal.com. The author will be revealed January 9th.


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